As I said in the last post, I was getting bored of my previous imagery. So it was time to move on to something different, and I also wanted to add more meaning into my work.
Throughout my time here in Japan, I've gone on TONS of hiking and trail running adventures.
In my opinion, I think that identity is similar to a journey, from A to B. They are both journeys through time and space; and both changing and evolving as time and space continue. Therefore, I think I can (somehow) justify comparing hiking adventures and one's identity!
Additionally, I really love how I can take a snapshot of time, of something personal and important to me, and then continue that particular story into some other direction.
The next two pieces are from the same hike in the summer of 2020, at the top of Mt. Odake in Okutama not far from Tokyo. Below I'll show the original picture and my collage side-by-side. A before and after?
My thought process for this first collage was to have a very dark colour for the foreground and then work my way through to lighter colours for each layer of mountains. I thought this would be work well because that's what you would normally do if it was a painting, right? For the lightest layer, I wanted to get something bright that would catch attention easily. As I was placing everything together, I thought it would also be cool if the layers were slightly ajar or floating in space... Unfortunately, I feel that these didn't really work well.
And then the sky! The clouds look ok. A little cartoon-ish. And too sharp, I think I could get a better 'cloud' with an ink wash.
Not a bad start though, I learned a lot from this first landscape!
The next part in this series is VERY different. I used pretty much everything that I learned in the first piece.
Firstly, instead of using a dark colour for the foreground, I used a bright red colour to be eye catching. Then for the other mountain layers, I used whatever colour I could find. But I made sure to use an opposite colour (green, in this case) for a final layer. Kind've like a highlight, to make the red pop even more. I think the colours and layers are working better together in this version.
I also started drawing on to one of the layers, to try and add a bit more depth, and detail, to the image. I simply added some plant shapes.
I also think the sky looks wayyyy better. I did a quick ink wash for the clouds - first, I roughly painted the area that I wanted the clouds with water, then I went over the same area with black ink. I like how some areas and sharp, where the ink was painted over with no water, and other areas are soft, where the ink was painted over the water.
Finally, I filled in the sky with blue crayons (it's all I had at the time). Gonna have to get myself more inks!!
It was fun making these, and I hope you enjoyed reading! If you've got any tips or advice, feel free to share :)
More collages coming soon. Stay tuned.
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